Thursday, August 6, 2009

I was having fun playing with this reflection shot this morning, taking pieces of it, copying them and adding colors, layering on the new colors and erasing...

When I had gotten it just the way I wanted it, I hit "merge layers" and suddenly some of the light disappeared. I tried lots of ways around this to little effect, and finally pasted another layer on, tried again, and it sort of worked.

I've been working with Photoshop since 1992, but there are still surprises from time to time; I mostly just try to go with the flow and trust that the end result will have what it needs to have.

Life is like that, too, of course, and parenting even moreso: just when you think you've kind of got the hang of things a curve ball comes your way and you have to get creative and resourceful and work at it all over again; there never seems to be a time when you can just coast -- or at least, the coasting times never seem to last very long.

The tricky part is that going-with-the-flow-and-trusting thing, as it usually involves letting go of control (not that we have any choice in the matter), and most of us find that pretty hard to do. I know I certainly do. Which may be why I love photography and art so much: it's a place where I can practice letting go of control and be reminded that the results often turn out "More than we can ask or imagine."

And now, as I write, I hear that wonderful Michael McDonald song from the 80's, "You Can Let Go Now." You should listen, if you don't know it; I just found it again after years of not hearing it, and I'm loving it.

It was so right, it was so wrongAlmost at the same timeThe pain and ache a heart can takeNo one really knows

When the memories cling and keep you thereTill you no longer careAnd you can let go now

Its wrong for me to cling to youSomehow I just needed timeFrom what was to be-its not like meTo hold somebody downBut I was tossed high by loveI almost never came downOnly to land hereWhere love's no longer foundWhere I'm no longer boundAnd I can let go now